Rob May before and after his weight loss
In my thirties I was reasonably fit. I wasn’t a runner, but I used to go to the gym and play badminton a couple of times a week. Weight was never an issue.
I’m 6’3” and weighed about 13st and had a 34” waist. When I turned 40, my wife and I had a baby and everything changed.
A demanding job, combined with the new pressure of getting home before bedtime, meant that exercise and healthy habits went out the window. Over time the weight crept up. I went up to 16st over the next 18 months. My waist line had gone up to 38” and I had started drinking alcohol more regularly as well. I had this big layer of fat. I was always uncomfortable, always hot.
My wife said she never noticed the change. I did, however, and when I looked at recent photographs of myself I started thinking, “Who’s that?”
Still, it took some time for me to do something about it. The idea of running came to me at church. I suppose you could call it an epiphany. The vicar was suggesting how this year for Lent, instead of giving something up, perhaps we could take something up. I decided I would take up running. I would jog every one of the 40 days before Easter.
At the beginning, I was in such a poor state that I couldn’t run to the end of the road – and it’s a short road I live on! That first run hurt a lot, and I must have taken 20 minutes to run a mile with five or so breaks to walk. I would only run under cover of darkness. Slowly, though, I made progress and my weight decreased.
Towards the end of Lent, I entered my first 5K. It was the first time I’d run with anybody else and I crossed the line in 28 minutes in about the middle of the pack. Not too bad, I thought, seeing as I’d only just started.
The weight by then was falling off – a radical change, just from running every day. My appearance altered so much that people started asking, “Are you OK?”
Despite having a job that requires lots of social interaction, really I’m an introverted person. Running gave me the private thinking space I needed. It gave me clarity and energy – far more, in fact, than I ever had before the baby came.
Doing more exercise helps you make more positive decisions about many aspects of life. Healthier eating came along naturally as a part of that.
Over the next year I lost four stone, reducing my weight to 12 stone. By taking part in the Cancer Research Dryathlon, I lost even more weight. I now weigh 11 stone and have a 30” waist.
After taking up running, my whole life seems to have benefitted. I feel this on the inside, but just recently at a work event someone came up to me and said, “I’m guessing you are a runner?”
So the change is clearly very obvious on the outside, too.
